Orioles Victory Card Number 23: Not all eBay transactions go horribly wrong

Baltimore Orioles Victory #23: 4-3 over the Oakland Athletics

1967 Topps Stu Miller

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.

One of the worst parts of social media, a means of communications that has a long and detailed list of faults, is that far more negative experiences are generated than positive.  To be fair (TO BE FAAAAIIIRR) that is a symptom more of human nature than social media itself. One of the few things I remember from orientation training at my currently furloughed place of employment is the stat that customers are 8 times more likely to share a negative experience than a positive one. What can we say, human beings love to bitch about stuff regardless of the platform.

So, as part of my desire to live a better, less negative life, I feel I should share some of the positives. An experience that started off rocky, but was resolved to a satisfactory way without the use of threats, curse words, or vague threats of negative feedback posting. 

Thanks to the sudden interest in Project 2020, my Paypal account is a little more flush than usual. With the financial windfall I've made a few donations and decided to tackle at least two cards off of my undisclosed, double-secret Top 10 list. Never published in any form (or at least that I can remember, who know maybe I did mention it on this space, or my previous blog - R.I.P to The Wasteland) the Top 10 has been around since at least 2009. I base that date on some of the cards that appeared on the original list, because that has to be the only reason they are on there. Even I'm not so random in my collecting habits to have some of the cards on there unless it's based on a product that was recent at the time.  I digress.

I put in a couple of "Best offer" bids on two cards that I wanted and waited for a response. They were both accepted and soon I received "Your item has shipped" notifications. Huzzah! (throws shot glass to the floor) Then, following my usual routine I promptly forgot about them. 

So it was a bit of a surprise when I was checking my eBay notifications to see a message pop up from one of the sellers that basically stated, "I'm so sorry, I've searched high and low and can't find the card you ordered."

"Ah-ha," I thought instantly, "We have ourselves a case of seller's remorse. This vile, no-good, beatnik has had second thoughts about the way I masterfully negotiated an amazing price and now want's to back out of the deal so that he may proceed to gouge some poor misguided, less-informed soul."

Because, after all, aren't we now preconditioned to find the devious in all things that don't go according to plan. There lie only con men and ne'er-do-wells on the dangerous open seas that is eBay. It can't be that a human being, susceptible to the facilities of their less-than-flawless origins could have made a simple mistake, right? So transgressions must be dealt with harshly and spare no quarter.

Luckily, I read the rest of his email before replying and saw that he was offering a full refund, or a credit at  higher amount for anything else that he had for sale. The credit he was offering was at a higher price than his original listing that he had on the card that I was buying, so if he was trying to put the squeeze on me his grifting skills were a little off. 

I checked his inventory and saw some cards that would look nice in the collection of an Orioles fan and took him up on his offer. He agreed, apologized again, and said that he would get them out right away. Again, me being me, forgot about them and went about my life.

Then the other day I received his shipment in the mail. Not only were the cards I ordered in there, he had through in a couple of more, including this Stu Miller that's older than me, because he felt bad about the condition of a couple of the cards that I had taken in exchange. 

I thanked him and added him as a seller to keep updated on with new listings and will most likely buy from again should he have something that catches my eye. In our communications he stated that he was a collector first and a seller second and I got the sense that he was sincere about the mistake.

It's so easy to get upset about things these days. Could I have ranted and raved about it? Could I have drawn him up against the eBay tribunal and had him arrested (that's how it works right). Sure, but in the end it's a freaking piece of cardboard. What's the point in getting upset? At the same time he could have just cancelled the order, or claimed it was lost in the mail and not had to have offered me anything. Acknowledgement and understanding go a long way to compromise and happy resolutions.

 ). On the same day we came to an agreement I found the original card from a different seller for about what I offered originally and with a $5 eBay coupon it ended up being less than what I would have paid. Coincidence? Most likely, but also a nice way to button up the whole situation. I've found that if you put out positive energy more likely than not you get it back (if you're dealing with people that have a conscience or an ounce of humanity

It may seem a bit pollyanna in these increasingly cynical times, but at the same token it does make life a little less stressful. It's hard, god-damn hard, work carrying around anger all the time and taking offense at the smallest, most insignificant, sometimes only perceived slights. Save that rage and anger for shit that matters.

Sorry to get off on a moral tangent there for a bit, I just wanted to share a little positivity in this sometimes negative hobby. There are more good people than bad out there, folks.  

Cross One Off The Ol' Card Bucket List

One of the perks of working in the hospitality business is that I get to wear a nametag at work.  On that piece of plastic, right beneath my full name is something that I’m “connected to”.  In my case, it’s “Baltimore Baseball”.  The goal is to generate a discussion with the guest while we’re checking them in. And it works, although I spend most of the time explaining that I don’t actually know anyone in the organization, I’m just a fan. 

As a fan who collects and blogs about cards you would think that it’s a no-brainer that I had one of the most iconic cards in Orioles history in my collection:

"Bob Bonner. Beloit. Accounts. Can I get you some coffee?"

Yet, until about a week ago I never owned the Topps Ripken rookie.  I’m not really sure why not. Sure, when I was younger and he was still playing it was a little out of my price range.  Then again, any card that was more than $5.00 was pretty much out of my price range.  However, you would think, now that I’m a grown-ass man with a real job I could plunk down the equivalent of two tickets to the movies to own THE CARD. Heck I’ve spent more at Starbucks then what I paid for the card.

I just never quite got around to it for some reason.  OK, so maybe it was because I’m easily distracted by other things.  Collecting a copy of every Floyd Rayford card isn’t something that happens overnight, you know.  Then (suddenly!) I found myself perusing eBay the other night with some money in my PayPal account.  I was actually looking for something totally unrelated to cards, probably a new lens for my camera that I can’t afford, but when on eBay it’s never too long before I start searching for cards.

A search for Lecavalier cards turned into a search for Murray cards which turned into a search for Machado rookie cards which then ultimately left me clicking on the “Buy it Now” button for the card you see above. 

Did I pay too much for it?  Maybe (but I got free shipping!) Yet, the price I paid was still way less then what it went for back in the late 80s and early 90s. That made me a little sad.  So I was happy/sad (hapsad?).  

Happy that I filled in a missing hole in my collection, but sad that the rookie card of a hall of fame shortstop could be had for less than half of what kids today pay for some player that hasn’t done half of what Ripken did in his career.

I was also feeling a bit nostalgic (as I tend to do after a couple of PBRs) about collecting. The 1982 set represents to me a different era of collecting. There really was no such thing as an “insert”. The only special cards were the all star cards or “In Action” cards.  Yet both of those were part of the base set.  There were really only a couple of ways to collect back then.  Either you were trying to build the set or you were trying to stockpile as many cards of your favorite player or team as possible. 

Not to get all old fogey on you, but it was definitely a simpler time for collecting.  There were three brands (Topps, Donruss and Fleer), and each basically had a base set and maybe an update or traded series.  The packs were considerably cheaper and seemingly more readily available for purchase. There were no endless parallels, meaningless 1-of-1s or overpriced, short printed gimmicks.  Rookie cards were easy to figure out. If it was the first time the manufacturer made that players card, chances are it was a rookie card.

Perhaps the simplicity was part of the reason there were more casual collectors back then. It was an easy hobby to figure out. You plunked down your twenty-five cents and opened the pack. No redemptions or figuring the difference between SP, SPx or SP Authentic required.

While collecting was simpler it was also much more limited.  If you were a player collector you had, at most, six or seven cards of your guy that you could find for the entire year.  Heck there are some sets these days that have different cards of the same player in just one set! There were no hand-signed cards or memorabilia cars.  While there might be a bit of overkill in those areas these days, it’s still pretty cool to own a piece of the action.

Back in the old days trading was done face to face.  You actually had to have friends or know people that collected cards.  Then you had to hope they had different interests than you did.  Trust me, in the mid-80s there weren’t many kids in Baltimore that were collecting Red Sox cards.  So we all tended to overvalue our 

Lenn Sakata or Joe Nolan cards while not giving a damn about Dave Winfield or Robin Yount.

Now, with the internet, there are seemingly endless trading partners.  Most of whom have a different focus than I do.  Although, when I think about it, there seems to be an inordinate amount of Orioles collectors in our blogospehere.  Even still I have no problem unloading my Red Sox or Braves cards now.

So much like the facts of life, you had the good and you had the bad.  It’s nice to remember those times, but I think I’m happier being a collector these days.  I’m also happier because I crossed another card off of my personal top 10. 

Ever Want To Own A Bieber Card?

Go Here.

It's hockey season so I've posted some new auctions to help support my quest to own every Lecavalier card ever made.

FYI - The Cup is Not Pregnant (as far as we know)

Two New Cards For the Collection

Last week I mentioned that I didn’t see any personal cards on e-bay that I felt like bidding on. Well that might have been a little white lie, a minor distortion of the truth if you will. I actually had just won a bid, but didn’t have the card in hand.

The card in question is my first relic for the Eddie Murray collection. Here it is:




A 2006 Upper Deck Epic Materials Jersey.

Orioles Uniform – check
Shiny – check
Numbered – check (88/145)
Uniform matches card - err no.

As any Oriole fan knows they’ve never sported pin stripes in their history (orange pin stripes, hmmm, maybe that will bring the winning). If I had to hazard a guess I would say it was from his days as a New York Met. He played two seasons in the Big Apple and hitting 43 home runs and drove in 193 runs. Not too shabby.

Despite the Mets association I still like the card. It was the right price and hey – he rocks the O’s uniform in Cooperstown and that’s the most important!


Card number two was an impulse buy. I was looking for more “Steady Eddie” cards and stumbled across one of his teammates from the good ol’ days (you know when the O’s were the pride of the American League?)




A 2003 Topps Fan Favorite Jim Palmer (1975 Topps design).

I really like the Fan Favorites concept. Topps took alternative photos of iconic players and put them on their most recognizable sets. Let’s compare it to the original card:




The original is definitely from the 70’s, I mean look at those side burns! I’m not sure how the card collecting public would receive this card, what with the dark shadows covering 90% of his face. Jim is also showcasing the best hat in the history of the franchise. Now that they finally put Baltimore back on the road uniforms let us start a campaign to bring back the bird logo!

I didn’t notice it when I bought the card, but the photo used for the Fan Favorite is definitely not from the70’s. Palmer is lacking the side burns and his face is a little bit weathered. He kind of reminds me of Sam Malone in this photo.

Upon further review I’m pretty sure this is from his aborted comeback in 1991. After being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990, “Cakes” showed up for Spring Training the next year. His comeback lasted two innings in which he gave up two runs and five hits (which would probably get him a spot in the bullpen this season).

So two more cards for the ol’ personal collection!

Mail Day! Cards Older Than Me! And I'm Old!

After successfully unloading some cards on the ‘bay the other day I figured it was time to invest my proceeds into some new cards for the ol’ personal collection. I wasn’t thrilled with the prices I was seeing on the Murrays and the Lecavaliers so I didn’t get to knock down those want lists (actually I did end up bidding on a Murray, but as usual I was sniped at the end).

With money burning a hole in my Paypal account I decided to take another approach. I put the iPad down and picked up the notebook. I fired up my Card Collector program and did a quick summary inventory. I quickly discovered that the oldest card I have in my collection is a 1957 Topps Stan Lopata, a card I believe I picked up at a flea market, or in a trade, or off the street, or at gunpoint. Actually, I have no idea how I got it come to think of it.

Anyway, I figured it was time to rectify the situation. Time to get some older cards into the house, at a reasonable cost, of course. So doing my due diligence (5 minutes of searching) I settled on a 3 card lot of 1956 Topps. The cards were a little beat up, but most importantly they were cheap. With shipping (and $.03 in eBay bucks!) I think my total was less than $5.00.

The three cards didn’t depict any stars so I’m not going to be able to flip them for a profit. As a matter of fact the only thing I knew about them (to paraphrase the great Cliff Claven) is that they are three men who have never been in my kitchen. So with the help of Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.com I decided to learn a little bit more about some former players.

I received the package in the mail on Wednesday - lets see the newest (oldest) members of the collection!




133 - Ray Narleski. A reliever for the Indians in the 50’s he was a two time all-star and named as one of the Indians top 100 players of all time.




45 - Gus Zernial - “Ozark Ike” what a fantastic nickname. Looks like he beat he throw, but the catcher is doing an excellent job of blocking the plate. According to the back of the card he won the home run and RBI crowns in 1951. According to Wikipedia he has the second most career home runs hit by a player whose last name starts with a “Z”. He finished his 10 year career with 237. Former Orioles Todd Zeile is the leader with 253. Victor Zambrano - 1834th on the list.




60 - Mayo Smith - The card that sold me on the auction. Smith only played a couple of seasons and wasn’t particularly outstanding. He turned to managing and coached in Philly, Cincinnati, and Detroit (where he took them to the World Series in 1968). But look at this card, what is he doing? Holding up a runner? Surrendering to unseen police officer? Playing defense for John Thompson?

There ya go. My latest mail day. Will I collect the rest of the cards in this set? Probably not, after all it’s taking me forever to finish the couple of sets that I’m working on right now (and they’re not even vintage!)

Still it’s always nice to own a couple of pieces of cardboard that are almost as old as my dad.

Please note that the photos posted are not of the actual cards. With no scanners I had to “borrow” some images.

The Collection Increases by One

While my pack buying habits are on standby, I've still been perusing the world's largest on-line flea market - eBay.

The result:




A 2003-04 Pacific Quest for the Cup Vincent Lecavalier.

Horizontal, young pre-trade rumors Vincent and a picture of the Holy Grail AND free shipping? That equals a win for me!

The First Cards of December!

If I had any type of blogging motivation at all I would probably start a 12 Cards of Christmas gimmick on this website that culminated with me revealing the 2010 Hopeless Chase Card of the Year. However, those that know me (hi Mom and Dad!), know that out of all of my wonderful traits motivation is not one of them. So instead you get just a quick post about a card I got in the mail.

Could this card signal the birth of a new player collection? With the departure of Carl Crawford imminent, perhaps I should focus my attention on a player who can't break some little kid's heart by jumping town.

On a side note, is it even remotely possible that some kid in the TBA wrote a letter to Santa Claus in which all he wants for Christmas is for CC to sign a 7 year deal with the Rays? Do kids even write to Santa anymore? Because I'm sure a 5 year old Justin G. would have done that, if he could write, that is. What age do kids start writing? I don't know these things, good thing I'm not a parent I guess.

Where was I? Oh yeah, a card in the mail. Here it is:




It's a 1978 Topps Eddie Murray Rookie Card.

I wouldn't call it my White Whale, more like a White Tuna, maybe. I've bid on Murray rookies about 10 times this year and lost out on every occasion as furious bidding in the final moments drove it out of my price range. Just for fun I put a bid on one last week and actually managed to grab it for a reasonable price.

As I grow older as a collector and a fan I tend to remember only the good parts of my childhood as a fan. 0-21? Don't remember the 21 losses, but I do remember the Chicago White Sox fans cheering for the O's win in the 22nd game. Eddie Murray traded for a bundle of spare parts? Nope, Memorial Stadium rocking with "ED-DIE, ED-DIE" chants.

So I picked up the card and have toyed with the idea of starting a Murray collection to replace CC. We'll see what happens with that as the days roll on. In the meantime, I'll look at classic O's cards and remember the childhood days.

Speaking of childhood, if there are any young readers out there reading. Let me fill you in on one of the great things about being an adult. As I typed this up, guess what I had for dinner. A bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Not a small bowl either, a heaping bowl of sugary goodness.

The best part (other than the sugar rush jitters) no one is here to look disapprovingly at me. It's glorious! So when an if you're wondering if it's awesome to be an adult - sometimes it is.

Look Who Got Mail!

After a brief one day standoff the U.S Postal Service resumed delivering mail to our apartment building this week. While rain,sleet, nor snow or dead of night will deter them from delivering mail, apparently a broken buzzer will. So on Monday and again on Thursday I had a couple of treats waiting for me after a laborious day at work.

One from a fellow blogger and one from eBay.

 

First up - a dark blue sweater from Co-Richard Trophy winner Steven Stamkos. It's a really nice piece from Spicolli's jersey and I appreciate that it isn't white or black like most Lightning relics. The card came from hockey card enthusiast and sure to be nervous Bruin fan Shane over at Shoebox Legends.

It's funny how card karma works. Before I headed up north I saw a cheap Bruins patch card and sent his way. He didn't have anything in return which I didn't care about, but low and behold he busts a box of UD Champs and there is young master Stamkos sitting all alone. Thanks Shane!

Card number two is from the 'Bay. Bored at home due to a depleted checking account I went surfing for some card relief the other day. Lucky for me there is still a few bucks in the ol' Paypal fund so I swooped in on an auction that was ending and ended up with a pretty nice looking card.

It is a 2005-06 (I think) UD Artifacts Treasured Swatches of the Captain - Vincent Lecavalier. It's numbered to 275 to boot! Look at the hopeful, almost joyful expression on his face. It's nice to remember the good times, before the Matt Cooke hit, before the trade rumors, before the circus came to town.

How long till next season?

There ya go, a couple of cards for the collection.

The First of the Chicago Maildays

Earlier this week I got to see my first yellow envelope in the mail slot. What a joyous occasion. A little ebay shopping to congratulate my new endeavors in the city.



A 2009-10 SP Game Used Dual Fabrics of Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos. The drawfor me was Vinny, but it's not to shabby having co-Rocket Richard winner Stamkos along for the ride. Add to the fact that it's numbered to 100 and it makes for a pretty sweet card.

Sorry for the lack of quality on the photo. We're working on finding a printer cable for our multifunction device so hopefully I'll have a scanner soon.